Paul's Morning Beet Juice
When I have a little time in the morning I like to start off with my favorite fresh juice. It is thick and creamy, sweet, earthy and a little tart. Its a fresh and health way to start the day, but it also has enough substance to hold me over until lunch...or dinner if its a busy day at work. It takes about 5 minutes to make, including cleaning up the juicer. Here's how I do it:
Ingredients:
- 1 medium beet
- 4 medium to large carrots
- 1 tart apple
- 1 sweet apple
Steps:
- Wash the fruit and vegetables carefully (this avoids tedious peeling and the off flavors of dirt ending up in your juice.) It is well worth your time.
- Trim the ends of the vegetables -- remembering that everything you don't cut off is going to end up as part of your juice.
- Cut the fruit and vegetables into pieces that can fit into your juicer.
- Juice, pour into a glass with a couple ice cubes, drink.
Beet Horseradish Hummus
Hummus is an infinitely adaptable dish, for some it is a nod towards ethnic cuisine, for others, a protein packed essential in a meat free diet. I like hummus for its ability to transform with color, from carrot stained orange to pea tinted green. Of all the variations on hummus, beet horseradish hummus is my favorite. It is hard not be captivated by this ruby toned riff on hummus. Try walking by a plate of beet horseradish smeared crackers and not eating them. To make this hummus, I paired walnuts and beets, two complementary flavors evoking earthy tones and fresh spring days, horseradish added the right amount of bite to the otherwise creamy scarlet hummus. Beware, once you make beet horseradish hummus, your view of its' beige sister will forever be skewed.
Roasted Beet Chips
I always associate beets with the Borscht Soup that my Oma used to make in the fall and winter months. At the time, I don't recall being all that enamored with either the soup, or beets. But now I love them both. We have found that beets are not a vegetable that generates a mild response. Whenever we plan to serve them, we like to first test out the waters to see if our guests are beet-friend or -foe. Beets have a strong earthy flavor that needs some assistance. In their unvarnished form, they are a dusty and lumpy root vegetable, with little to commend by their exterior. But peel a beet and you will find a vibrant, sweet and minerally vegetable, happy to lend color and flavor to drab dishes. Beets and their greens are chock full of vitamins, among them A, B1, B2, B6 and C and are high in calcium, iron and magnesium. Beets respond well to many cooking applications and are delicious in everything from hummus to pickles to juice. I first made these roasted beet chips when I was hankering for some root chips (those incredibly overpriced bags of beet and sweet potato chips at the grocery). It occurred to me that I could make them on my own and instead of deep frying, I thought I’d give beet chips in the oven a go. While Paul was skeptical of my oven technique, it worked beautifully and he sneakily polished off the first batch before our guests arrived!
Red Cabbage Sauerkraut with Apple & Clove
I love sauerkraut, and this is one of my seasonal favorites. The red cabbage, apples, cloves, and black pepper lend it color and warm fall flavors. Homemade sauerkraut is easier than you think, and it is incomparable to the stuff you can buy in the grocery. For a longer discussion of fermentation technique and background, check out our Homemade Sauerkraut With Juniper And Caraway. For this batch I used a beautiful stoneware crock made by our good friend Colin Dyck at Mudslide Stoneware. These traditional European-style crocks are both gorgeous and practical, including a water-lock for fuss-free fermentation. For my all-time favorite use of sauerkraut, check out our Reuben Sandwich.
Tart Apple Kiwi Juice
I'm a little nuts for sour flavors. Paul will sometimes remark, as I gobble up sour candies, that I have the taste buds of a 7-year-old. It's true. I crave all things mouth-puckeringly, tear-jerkingly sour! This apple kiwi fruit juice completely hits the spot for me, it is a great, green jolt of tang with strong tropical flavors of kiwi. I can make this apple kiwi juice in under 2 minutes, including cleaning up the juicer. The great secret of this juice: it's too sour for Paul, so I get to drink it all myself!
Carrot Orange Energy Juice
Carrot Orange Energy Juice is as bright and cheerful in flavor as it is in color. Before (or after) a holiday stuffed with food, it is nice to have something fresh and light. The sweet earthy creaminess of the carrots gets kicked into high gear by the oranges, giving this fun juice an unexpected smoothness and complexity. Its quick to make and it will keep you going for several hours. Bottoms up!
